A fourteen year old middle school girl was kidnapped in my town last week by a 36 year old man who is using her for sex. Our wingnuts (and we have a lot) are making the audacious claim that she deserves this becuase she is Mexican, and apparantly this is "normal for Mexicans." First, a bit of background information.
I live in Woodburn, Oregon. This is a town of about 20,000 people in the middle of Oregon farm country about 30 miles south of Portland. It is unique among very white Oregon in that the town is about 70% Latino. My wife teaches high school chemistry, and I am a substitute teacher in the middle and high schools. As such, we know most of the teenage kids in town, so it is an extra shock when someone you know is kidnapped.
While many of the teachers at the schools choose to live in other (whiter)towns and commute, my wife and I, after coming here out of college when she got her job three years ago, fell in love with the place and bought our house here. Our community is often misunderstood by others, mainly because we are majority Latino. Anytime a crime happens here, we have to put up with the "if we deported all the wetbacks" crap that the hate mongers spew, as if white people NEVER commit crimes (here's looking at your meth problem, Portland).
Anyway, my blood is absolutely boiling right now. We had a 14 year old girl kidnapped last week by a 36 year old man. Both are of hispanic descent. It appears as if the two had been carrying on some sort of inappropriate relationship for a couple of months, but police do not know if the girl went willingly. They are believed to be headed to California or Mexico. This girls parents have been on the news bawling their eyes out. However, our sympathetic wingnut friends have things like this to say in the comments section of
The Oregonian:
yes, they are in mexico, their homeland, where they belong. maybe all their relatives could go back there too. raping little girls is standard procedure down there. thats how they turn em into women. viva la mexico. nice to see em go home after being such rude, ungrateful guests.
The only problem I see is spending tax-payer money on a search for an illegal immigrant that was taken by an illegal immigrant back to Mexico.
Problem solved!!! Go on to the next crime!!!!
I realize this "crime" was committed in the U.S. But it's like that old saying. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it....
Isn't it presumptuous to say she is an innocent 14 year old girl?
In Mexican culture, it is perfectly ok for a grown man to sexually abuse a minor, as American law defines it. Illegal immigrants don't recognize immigration laws, so why would anyone think they would follow criminal law?
She probably ran away with this gem of a world citizen because she grew tired of living with her eight brothers and fourteen sisters (some with child) and a large assortment of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins galore in a tiny two-bedroom apartment in Woodburn. So, she chooses to put up with a little rubby rubby from Uncle Dirty Sanchez to gain a little peace. That and the fact that most of the Meixican population is either here or on the way with packed burrows, she can be rest assured Old Mexico will soon be nice and roomy to roam.
Just watch out for the cartels and the politicians and the cops in the pocket and the cycle keeps repeating and the cycle keeps repeating....
These are just three comments by three people, but the thread is littered with them. How can anybody feel this utter lack of empathy for a family who has lost their child? For a child who is being abused? Did she deserve it because of her race? Do these people honestly belive that there is something inherently inferior about her?
Because according to them, all Latinos must be illegal. They all live 18 to an apartment. They all rape 14 year old girls. Thats just the way it is, so its okay for us to ignore it.
And this absolutely disgusts me.
How in the world, after thousands of years of human progress, can one still feel a race based sense of superiority? That the life of a child is worthless because of her ethnic heritage? I will never understand.
Sadly, we can't hope that this is just going to die out. I coach basketball here as well, and I take high school kids all over the state to play ball. You should hear the comments that my kids have to put up with at some of the suburban schools. Fortunately, the kids making these comments are the vast minority, but that it is there is frightening.
I understand most conservatives views on illegal immigration. Those views don't bother me, and I don't think that most people who have those views are racist. But clearly, some people have taken it too far.
A child is missing. A family is grieving. But they're Mexican, so they probably deserve it.